Fundraiser to help injured Jacksonville native

Published: Sunday, June 2, 2013 at 03:14 PM.

Editor's note: The contact number for information on the fundraiser has been corrected.

A group of classmates will get together later this month for a bittersweet reunion to help an old friend.

Bruce Hemmingway, son of former Jacksonville City Clerk Bill Hemmingway, was returning to his
Raleigh
area home on April 12 after dinner with a friend. Both on motorcycles, Hemmingway and his friend, Tim Croom, were hit at an intersection — both were injured, but the wreck left Hemmingway a quadriplegic. It was an abrupt life change for a man friends described as active, lively and outgoing.

“He was such an active guy,” longtime friend Brad Padgett said. “He was working every day and loving life.”

A fundraiser and motorcycle ride is being planned for June 22 in
Jacksonville
to help support the family that has had a longtime presence in the area.

Padgett, like many of Hemmingway’s other friends, met him while growing up in
Jacksonville
in the 1960s and 1970s. Hemmingway, along with another long-time friend, John Starzinski, took every opportunity they had to hit the beach when school let out at Jacksonville High.

“We lived for surfing,” Starzinski said. “We’d get out of school and say ‘let’s go surfing.’”

Editor's note: The contact number for information on the fundraiser has been corrected.

A group of classmates will get together later this month for a bittersweet reunion to help an old friend.

Bruce Hemmingway, son of former Jacksonville City Clerk Bill Hemmingway, was returning to his Raleigh area home on April 12 after dinner with a friend. Both on motorcycles, Hemmingway and his friend, Tim Croom, were hit at an intersection — both were injured, but the wreck left Hemmingway a quadriplegic. It was an abrupt life change for a man friends described as active, lively and outgoing.

“He was such an active guy,” longtime friend Brad Padgett said. “He was working every day and loving life.”

A fundraiser and motorcycle ride is being planned for June 22 in Jacksonville to help support the family that has had a longtime presence in the area.

Padgett, like many of Hemmingway’s other friends, met him while growing up in Jacksonville in the 1960s and 1970s. Hemmingway, along with another long-time friend, John Starzinski, took every opportunity they had to hit the beach when school let out at Jacksonville High.

“We lived for surfing,” Starzinski said. “We’d get out of school and say ‘let’s go surfing.’”

But it was Hemmingway’s love of life and others that friends brought up most frequently when talking about him.

“Bruce is always jovial and friendly,” said former classmate and friend Sabrina Guy. “He always has a positive attitude.”

Hemmingway and his friends kept in touch and remained friends after graduating, gathering for reunions and celebrating milestone birthdays. Most of them, though, went their own ways. Hemmingway moved out to the Raleigh area and started a printing business. But, when word of Hemmingway’s accident came out, the reaction seemed to be the same.

“I just thought, ‘Why Bruce?’,” Starzinski said. “Bruce is the kind of guy this isn’t supposed to happen to. Why do the good guys always get hurt?”

Padgett said he was floored, and Guy said she was devastated.

“(Hemmingway and his wife, Vicki’s) lives will never be the same,” she said.

Guy, among others, found out through one of Hemmingway’s closest friends: Elena Sosa. Like Starzinsky, Padgett and Guy, Sosa grew up with Hemmingway and went to Jacksonville High, graduating with Hemmingway in 1977. After a long stint in Southern California, Sosa moved back to Eastern North Carolina to be near her father a couple of weeks before Hemmingway’s accident. Sosa was planning for a visit from Hemmingway and his wife when she heard about the wreck.

“Your first instinct is to ask ‘is he still alive,’” said Sosa. “Tears were shed.”

Sosa visits Hemmingway at WakeMed in Raleigh every Thursday and says that Hemmingway is already starting to make progress; though the process has been and will be difficult for everyone involved.

“You rub his arm or his shoulder and you know he can’t feel it,” said Sosa.

Sosa said the Hemmingways have had to close up their business of 17 years and remodel their home to make it handicapped accessible. There’s already been a fundraising event held in the Raleigh area on the Hemmingway’s behalf, and the “Prayers for Bruce” Facebook page has more 1,000 members. But Sosa believed Hemmingway’s old stomping grounds needed to support the family as well.

“The Hemmingways are such a big part of this town,” Sosa said. “I had to do something.”

Sosa “got the ball rolling” on the Team Hemmingway fundraiser and motorcycle ride and has been recruiting old friends to rally around Hemmingway and his family, a task that has been keeping Sosa busy.

“This is like a full time job now,” she said.

The Team Hemmingway fundraiser and motorcycle ride will start at 10:30 a.m. June 22 with registration for the motorcycle ride, which begins at NorthwoodsRecreationCenter and ends at the JacksonvilleCommonsRecreationCenter. At noon, the fundraiser will start at the JacksonvilleCommonsRecreationCenter where there will be food, a silent auction, a 50/50 raffle and another raffle for a week’s vacation in a beach house in SurfCity. Sosa hopes Hemmingway and his wife will make an appearance; but regardless, Sosa believes Hemmingway will do what he can to reach his ultimate goal: walking again.

“There’s no stopping Bruce,” Sosa said.

For more information on the upcoming event, contact Elena Sosa at 818-489-7648.

Christopher Thomas is a staff writer for the Jacksonville Daily News. To contact him, call 910-219-8473 or e-mail him at christopher.thomas@jdnews.com.